The M50 - a drive into the past

A trip to South Wales with a friend at the weekend saw part of the journey undertaken on the M50 motorway, or Ross Spur as it is sometimes known, and as a passenger I was able to appreciate the unique character of this odd little road. While many readers would probably consider roads in general to be boring and motorways especially so, the M50 is actually rather interesting, despite being a mere 21 miles long with only four junctions. Being one of Britain's oldest motorways but lightly used and little modified since it was built, it is probably as close as it is possible to get to an authentic 1960s motorway travel experience, and one of those four junctions is also rather remarkable.

Where does the M50 go and why (or Wye)?

All 21 miles of the M50 in splendid isolation through the countryside. There are some strangely named villages in the vicinity: Trumpet, Ripple and Hole-in-the-Wall.

The M50 runs from junction 8 of the M5 at Strensham, a few miles north of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, westwards to just beyond Ross-on-Wye, where it connects with the A449/A40 combination that ultimately joins the M4 at Newport, and also links to Monmouth and Abergavenny. Considering the relatively unimportant nature of the small towns it serves, what is most amazing about the M50 is how early in the motorway construction programme it was built: when it opened in November 1960, it was only the third distinct motorway in the country, the only others completed at that time being the M6 Preston bypass and the M1 together with its associated spurs, although several more were at an advanced stage of planning or construction. It must have been deemed of great importance by the standards of the late 1950s, when the country's embryonic motorway network contained only a handful of planned routes and before the big motorway building boom of the sixties.

The rationale behind the M50's existence is most likely to have been the desire to provide a high-quality connection between two then-major industrial centres, the coalfields of South Wales and the factories of the Black Country, but its eastern terminus at Tewkesbury seems odd in that context. Although there has been speculation that the road should have travelled further at both ends, possibly as far as Swansea at the Welsh end and to Birmingham or maybe even Nottingham in the east, there is no conclusive evidence to support this theory and the majority consensus is that the current stretch of M50 is all that was ever intended to be built, as 1950s policy was to use existing roads suitably upgraded wherever possible in preference to building new ones. Although publicised as a link to South Wales, the M50 itself is actually entirely within England and stops several miles short of the border, it being the A40 that passes over into Wales.

Although nowadays thought of as a spur of the M5, the M50 actually predates this more important road and the section between M50 junction 1 and M5 junction 8 was built slightly later and opened with the M5 itself in 1962. This may have been a rare piece of careful pre-emptive planning: by completing the M50 first, the M5 could open a short time later with its vital South Wales link already established. Another possible reason for its early construction is the rural nature of the road: as it doesn't go near any built-up areas and largely passes through open fields it would have been one of the least controversial motorway plans and as such was able to be pressed ahead with no major objections. The M4 and Severn Bridge also came several years after the M50, so the latter initially formed part of the primary route into South Wales.    

What is it like to drive?

The M50 was built to the simpler original motorway standards of the late 1950s but unlike its contemporaries has received very little in the way of upgrades apart from crash barriers and modern signage and emergency equipment. It has never been widened so it retains its original two-lane configuration and the hard shoulder varies from narrow to non-existent, disappearing over and under every bridge. The entire length of the road can be driven in less than twenty minutes and it sees very little traffic, with congestion being a much rarer phenomenon than on most other motorways. On this clear high-speed road scything through the countryside, it is easy to imagine what motorway travel must have been like in those carefree days of the early sixties, a simpler time when car ownership was much rarer and before speed limits and widespread traffic problems.

The M50 leaves the M5 at the latter's junction 8, which doesn't even have a number in the M50 sequence but is nominally considered to be junction 0. We didn't actually drive this bit, joining at junction 2 westbound and leaving at junction 1 eastbound, but other accounts suggest this has actually been worsened from its original form. It opened as a free-flowing trumpet interchange, but for reasons unknown (possibly to provide better access to the services from both motorways) this was replaced by a simple roundabout with a flyover when the M5 was widened in the 1990s. This low-key start really sets the scene for a series of poor-quality junctions throughout the M50.

Junction 1 for Tewkesbury is probably the best of the M50's four junctions, but on the eastbound carriageway it does have one slightly odd feature. The advance warning sign is 1.5 miles away from the junction, an unusual distance as one mile before is the standard, but that would put the sign right in the middle of the Queenhill Bridge, a long viaduct across the River Severn and its flood plain and possibly the most interesting man-made feature of the road. Junction 2 is principally for Ledbury to the north and on the westbound journey we joined the M50 here, but from the south where it doesn't really seem to serve anywhere particularly important, just some twisty A and B-roads that ultimately meander towards Gloucester. The main thing that sticks in my mind about this junction is the steep and roughly-surfaced slip road that seems to have received little maintenance over the years.

The infamous junction 3 in all its glory. Look at those T-junctions!

Junction 3 with the B4221 to Newent is a sight to behold and something most unexpected on a modern motorway, so I admit to doing a double-take as we passed it. In both directions it is a simple 90-degree T-junction with no flared slip roads or grade separation, and I have seen better junctions on many dual-carriageway A-roads. Several such junctions apparently existed in the early days of the motorways but proved highly dangerous and most have long since been upgraded; this little-used intersection with a rural B-road has however been left unchanged as a rare (and dangerous!) relic of the past. Leaving the motorway here looks hair-raising enough, hard braking down the exit lane being needed to make the turn, but joining is even worse: a merge into 70mph traffic from a virtual standing start along a very short acceleration lane after the 90-degree bend!

After just 21 miles, the motorway comes to an unspectacular end at junction 4. There is nothing fancy here, just an ordinary at-grade roundabout that doesn't even have a name and filters traffic either onto the A449, A40 or into Ross. That is a rather disappointing way of terminating what must have been considered a vitally important motorway when it was built, leaving the rest of the route into Wales in the hands of mere A-roads, albeit now dual-carriageway and largely of good quality apart from the cramped section around Monmouth. 

There are no service areas on the M50 itself, it being served in the east by Strensham Services at the junction with the M5, and in the west by Ross Spur Services, on the A449 just beyond the roundabout where the motorway terminates. At one time, the latter was a full-blown motorway service area despite not actually being on a motorway, although this has now closed to leave just a petrol station. In fact there is very little of anything on or even near the M50 apart from a few bridges, and it passes through open countryside several miles away from any urban areas, so the lack of visible buildings is a bit odd when compared with most other motorways.

So what's the point of the M50?

From the description above, the M50 may seem a bit pointless, but in reality it does serve a very useful purpose for motorists travelling between South Wales and the Cotswolds, who would otherwise face lengthy and torturous diversions through either the Malvern Hills or the Forest of Dean. A motorway may be overkill for the traffic volumes and an ordinary A-road would almost certainly suffice, but the M50 is a product of its time when motorways were new and exciting and a motorway construction project would be met with far more enthusiasm than any other type of road, a far cry from today's attitudes towards any road building. Its quiet nature and short length also make it an ideal location for newly-qualified drivers to get their first taste of motorway driving, and as long as you avoid using the bad junctions, driving on the M50 is certainly far less stressful and more pleasant than a typical British motorway journey.   

Motorways get a bad press these days, so let's hear it for the humble M50, a throwback to a past age when motorway travel was an exciting novelty and not the chore it often is today!